PEMBROKE PARK -- In the tiny town dotted by mobile-home parks and lakes, the bizarre is not unexpected. It is a way of life.

Commission meetings, of all things, are the greatest form of entertainment, with residents constantly heckling the mayor to "take a breath" and "put a sock in it."

Residents crowd into Town Hall dressed in clown suits. And they hold spaghetti dinners and car washes to raise money to remove politicians from office.

Pembroke Park was incorporated in 1957 as a haven for retirees, but it turned out to be anything but a sleepy little town of 6,000.

Even its old police force was anything but typical.

In the late 1970s, the town of 1.6 square miles was patrolled by 30 police officers, each with a squad car. The police force had a SWAT team, two helicopters and a canine unit.

The helicopters hovered more frequently over Davie, though, flying especially low over a well-populated nudist camp.

If that was not enough, the town almost went bankrupt buying a third helicopter.

Then-Mayor Gerald Yourman, who would rumble down the streets on his motorcycle with his girlfriend on the back, said he believed in law and order.

But apparently not everyone in Town Hall did.

Thomas J. Courtney, town administrator and public safety director, resigned in 1977 after the Broward State Attorney's Office launched an investigation into the town's precarious financial situation. A grand jury accused him of stealing $5,000 from the town.

Courtney disappeared from Pembroke Park, only to become a bank robber in the Midwest.

About then, the town acquired the nickname "Bozoville."

In Pembroke Park, history has a way of repeating itself, especially when it comes to politics.

Barney Koretsky was first elected to the Town Commission in 1983 and was appointed mayor. Four months later, he was called a dictator by commissioners and stripped of the title.

Two years after that, Koretsky was thrown out of office after being convicted of forging recall petition signatures against three commissioners.

In most other cities, that might end a political career.

But not in Pembroke Park. Residents elected Koretsky to the Town Commission again two years later, and he was chosen mayor again.

After firing people left and right, and unsuccessfully trying to revive the town's Police Department against ardent protests, Koretsky became the subject of a recall last year.

Soon after, mysterious signs began popping up on Hallandale Beach Boulevard reading, "Entering Bozoville" and "Leaving Bozoville."

And residents said they began wondering, yet again, how much more weird their little town could get.

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